The Red and the Black

Stephen's review, while offering a general snipe at Stendhal, doesn't really give much information about this specific recording for those who may wish to know if it is a good audio version of the book or not.

I think Davina Porter is one of the best narrators I have ever heard- in an ideal world, every child would have a mother with a voice like this to read them bedtime stories. It may be a personal feeling, but you can check it out for yourself on the sample.

As for the text, it is also top drawer: I had to read the book in French for my degree, and I also read a Penguin edition when I wanted to reread it and was being lazy, and I bought this version for when I was being even lazier and wanted to 'read' the book while jogging etc. The point of this is that I concluded this translation was better than the Penguin one: it is more faithful to the original while at the same time being beautiful to read.

All in all, this version of this novel is a lovely experience and, in my opinion, twenty hours of your life well spent.

?...a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly 'beautiful' or a large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world.?
Sorry to report that I didn?t suffer any of the above ? drooping eyelids, paucity of will to live, deadening of the buttocks?tempered with intermittent amusement.
Treat with a large dose of Zola followed by a course of Flaubert to be taken after Maupassant